"If City don't improve their away form, that game is irrelevant," Hansen told BBC Sport. "The defeats at Chelsea and Sunderland weren't that bad, because they didn't play badly, but the ones at Everton and especially Swansea were poor.

"There wasn't a lot of spirit in the team. I know captain Vincent Kompany was missing but there wasn't a lot of leadership and that has to come from the manager [Roberto Mancini]. United boss Sir Alex Ferguson would never have accepted a performance like the one at Swansea."